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hard drive corrupt??

4K views 19 replies 9 participants last post by  Britnell 
#1 ·
I have an IMAC, purchased less than a year ago. I cannot seem to startup the computer.
It is running Jaguar 10.2 and I cannot seem to boot from the 10.2 Jaguar disk #1 ??
I try to boot normally and a multi-lingual message appears to say that I should re-boot by holding down the power button.
I have also tried re-booting while holding down the "C" key and it won't start up.

What suggestions does anyone out there have? I have tried many times but to no avail.
 
#2 ·
Hi Peter,

Very odd that you can't start up from CD-ROM via the "C" key. (Note that you can eject the CD by holding down the mouse button on startup, keep holding until the tray opens).

Have you tried (a) the Apple Hardware Test CD that came with the iMac, or (b) booting into "Single User Mode" by holding down Command-S until you see a bunch of scary text (then run the <font color="blue">/sbin/fsck -y</font> command.

M.
 
#3 ·
Hey Mark,
Thanks for your reply to my email.
I did try the hardware test CD and everything passed!
I then did the single user mode thing and several things were found and the volume was repaired and then it finished with 'bus error'
Then I tried to start up normally and still end up at the multi-lingual window....very frustrating at this point!
I had the OS 10.2 disk #1 in place and went into open disk utility where I was able to verify permissions and then I repaired permissions. I tried to verify the disk but said that it would not unmount because it was in use ??
Ah well.
Any additional suggestions??

Peter
 
#7 ·
Peter,

I'm at a loss. The "bus error" reported after running fsck in single-user mode is very odd.

Since nothing else is plugged into your USB ports apart from the keyboard / mouse, and nothing in your firewire ports, then one might conclude it's an internal hardware problem.

I'd say... cart that puppy down to the shop.

:(

M.
 
#8 ·
Zis is very vierd yah?

Try booting from the hardware test again and you can tell it to loop the tests, as in run them multiple times. I forget exactly how to do this, I think you hold the option key when going to the testing area or something along those lines. I tried to search the KBase, Google (and a few other places) for the right button to push, but without luck.

I will get back to you on how to do it later.

--PB
 
#9 ·
The IMAC is now with an authorized Apple dealer and it is under warranty (less than 1 year old) so it won't cost anything.
They are going to do a full diagnostic on it. The guy there seemed to think that if there is no beeping when you hit the power up button than it is not likely going to be bad RAM, possibly a problem with the mother board?

Ah well..it is in the hospital now. I will wait to see what the verdict is.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Peter
 
#10 ·
I've senn that many time and most of the fix I found to repair them were not very orthodox. The problem is located only on the driver portion of the hard drive. Even booting with the original CD won't do. Mainly because at boot time the Mac is awaiting a signal from all is deviced and the hard drive corruption keep the disk to skip ininitly. So the first thinh to do. "Yes to everyone after all prior recomandation already received in this thread." Is to disconnect the hard disk connector but not the poer attached to it and then boot with the original CD. Once everything is mount you grouded yourself very well and delicately plug the hard drive. Then the disk utility of the CD will see the problem and will correct it instantly. I know that an IMac is a long way home to do the job. But it's the only real way of fixing that particular problem. Then after you should past the regular utility program like DiskWarrior and co...
Ours
 
#12 ·
I've learned that in the beginning of the Mac Plus era. When people had to used some third party SCSI disk driver until we learned how to hack the Apple SCSI setup software to recognize all disk including non Apple rom one. That's all but I realize that it's not a commun task for many end user. Last I've done it again when a friend of mine bought a Power Mac running Mac OS 8.6 that has those "Forward Hard Disk etc..." multiple drivers and all installed even if the Mac was carryng a real Apple rom drive. Those old sofware bring big problem with the load of extentions and control device only for the driver portion. So a drive with a corrupted driver could give a lot of trouble and is comsuming a lot of time in searching a solution. Has for your key code you wrote about if it does the job then it's better. But what is that key code or something like you wrote. Since a fellow need a fast answer before he'll have to pay big bucks to a pro shop that will perform the same that I explained but for at least $80 at minimum.
 
#14 ·
Is it just me, or are there really a LOT of unusual hard drive corruptions on recent Macs?

My pal's 1-year, 2-month (i.e. just out of warranty) Flat Panel iMac just had to have its hard drive replaced. The techs said the controller board was dead, and the drive ws making "scratching noises."

When the HD on his Pismo died last fall, we accepted it as due to the rough treatment a laptop goes through. But a desktop Mac? That's ridiculous! :mad:

<insert blasphemy here>
Makes you want to think twice about buying another Mac.
<end blasphemy>

M.
 
#15 ·
Okay, I'll bite, how many newer iMacs are having hd problems.
My wife's iMac has a bus error that shows up every few days. I've done the usual troubleshooting things, techtools. Usually a couple of restarts and extension manager changes fixes it for awhile.
Correct me: a bus error is a bad command. It stays in the last few seconds of memory so it is still there when you restart, causing the next few crashes. It takes several restarts for that command to move back and out of the restart memory loop.
There's been no recent downloads, installs.
Sure like to figure out what is causing this to happen so frequently.
 
#16 ·
OK, the computer is now fixed.
They have traced the problem to a game called Medal of Honour that may have caused the original problem. Also they aid that there were a number of shareware programs loaded on that also probably contributed to the problem . The harddrive was seriously fragmented and they have optimized the drive and all boots normally now.
Thank you fellow Mac friends for lending your ideas to the problem.
The work they did was not considered to be warranty work so there was an $85.00 charge...money I didn't mind paying !

Until the next problem..happy Mac sailing to one and all !

Peter
 
#20 ·
Funny you should mention HD corruption.

I've had 2 serious problems with my MDD G4 that I bought in February that had to do with HD corruption (on the boot disk, not on the UW SCSI disks installed).

Methinks that there is still a little work to be done under the hood of system X.x

I'm hoping that Panther will fix this.
 
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